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Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber believes that his league should be considered a “Big Five” professional sports league in the United States.
When asked at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit about whether MLS is unfairly compared to the “Big Four” North American leagues—traditionally considered to be the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL—Garber said he “forever thinks” his league is up there with them.
“When all of you [media] would say the big four, we say, ‘Well, there is a big five,’ and I’ll add when [NWSL Comissioner] Jessica [Berman] comes up, the big six,” Garber said. “What does a ‘major league’ mean? It means you have millions of fans that have deep connections to the community, you have players that want to be using your league as a league of choice, that you’re influential globally like we are with FIFA, or our teams getting invited to the White House. You need to be part of the global conversation here, and we are.”
However, Garber acknowledged that the relatively newer MLS is “not yet comparable” to other major sports leagues in terms of both media revenue and audience. MLS is currently in a seven-year media rights deal with Apple TV which will pay the league $200 million in 2026, and up to $275 million for the 2027–28 and 2028–29 seasons, the final two of the deal.
The number pales in comparison to the approximate media rights revenue earned annually by other leagues: the NFL’s $10 billion, the NBA’s $6.8 billion, the MLB’s $2.1 billion, and the NHL’s $625 million. The WNBA’s media rights deal, which is a portion of the NBA’s larger deal, has an average annual value of $281 million.
Garber used this lack of comparative draw to defend MLS’s agreement with Apple TV, which has been criticized by former league stars like Landon Donovan. Prior to when the Apple TV deal began in 2022, MLS had partnerships with Fox Sports, ESPN, and Univision, as well as several regional sports networks.
“We all know what regional sports is like. We started seeing softness there because we are not the NBA or NHL or basketball,” Garber said. “We started seeing those deals not getting renewed. We’re not getting renewed at the numbers we want.”
Garber says that with MLS on Apple TV, the league has around 500 nationally televised games annually—five times more than previously. He believes the quantity of those games, rather than the ratings for a few of the most-watched, should be the measuring stick.
“The comparisons are uncomfortable. How do you rate that? You roll them all up,” Garber said of MLS’s nationally televised games. “If we were going to take our top three, like the other leagues do, our ratings would be five times what they are today.”
According to Nielsen Data revealed at the Tuned In summit, viewership for MLS’s 10 matches televised on Fox and FS1 since the 2026 FIFA World Cup have risen 55% among men aged 18-34 and 29% among young adults in that same age category.
Notably, viewership data for MLS’s Apple TV matches are not publicly made available.
MLS’s new media deal will not be negotiated by Garber, who will step down at the end of the year. He will be replaced by current Los Angeles FC co-owner Larry Berg.
